Friday 20 January 2006

Independence for politicians, not people

Last Friday, the Scotsman carried an article about the SNP's manifesto for the next elections for the Scottish Parliament:
Ms Sturgeon also revealed that the working title of the SNP's manifesto for the 2007 Scottish parliament elections is "A Culture of Independence".

The Nationalists would be arguing that their political aim of independence for Scotland is replicated in their policy approach. Their aspiration for Scottish independence would be matched by an aspiration for "personal and individual independence", Ms Sturgeon said.

Peter MacMahon rightly noted that there's a wee bit of a contradiction here: the SNP's activists are overwhelmingly anti-individualist.

Nicola Sturgeon responded a few days later and insisted that her party favours personal as well as national independence.

But her letter shows that the SNP just doesn't get it:

For example, we want to get rid of student loans and tuition fees so that young graduates do not start their working lives weighed down by debt.
And that's an example of personal independence! No, it's dependence. Someone else, including non-graduates, will have to pay.

Then:

first-time buyers' grants to help young people get a foot on the housing ladder
Another subsidy from the taxpayer.

Next, she wants:

a small business charter to encourage and reward enterprise.
Business doesn't need a politician's "charter"; it needs a politician's absence.

I'm afraid that the SNP has a very long way to go before it even begins to understand what personal independence really means.

2 comments:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Stuart Dickson
Probably. I am waiting for the lust to communicate to return: I can feel an upsurge in the tingle in my typing finger as we speak.
29 January 2006, 18:20:32 GMT – Like – Reply

David Farrer
Hello Stuart. We're missing your blog - will it return?

I was just lucky with Political Betting. I have a look each morning and the Dunfermline post was just up, plus I'd already written my piece about the Tory row.
29 January 2006, 12:17:19 GMT – Like – Reply

Stuart Dickson
"... First thing, when Scotland gets its independence, it needs a civil war to get rid of its homegrown Socialists... "

I support the sentiment, but can we leave the blood and guts out of it. Pen, sword etc.

You generally find that when politicians actually get in power, they do grow up considerably. The wilder bits of leftist posturing will be deposited like a scrap of soiled loo paper as soon as the new-car whiff touches the nostrils of the new SNP ministers. The SSP are a very welcome addition to the Scottish political scene, because they have removed a few of the truly economically illiterate from the SNP (and Labour) activist ranks.

Not read your blog in absolute ages David. I am delighted to see that you are still producing very fine posts. I revisited F&W because you left the very first comment at the Dunf by-election post over at politicalbetting.com. That is an old trick of mine, you ratings-chasing rascal

Don't be offended: I haven't been reading ANY blogs recently, but reading yours reminds me of why they can be so damned addictive: those newspapers have their good points, but lordy THEY ARE SOOO BORING!
29 January 2006, 10:56:04 GMT – Like – Reply

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Wild Pegasus
Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights -- those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle. P.J. O'Rourke, Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut
23 January 2006, 01:15:35 GMT – Like – Reply

Michael Stone
Isn't it scary that these people refer to themselves as leaders? They wouldn't know an idea if it jumped up and down in front of them shouting, "I'm an idea!"

I get tired of seeing nationalism being trumpeted as the same as individualism and as an antidote to group-think.

What's attractive about the image of the tough, rugged, independent Scotsman is that he is tough, rugged and independant, not that he is Scottish.

I fear you have a long battle on your hands, Mr. Farrer.
21 January 2006, 05:51:19 GMT – Like – Reply

Robert Speirs
First thing, when Scotland gets its independence, it needs a civil war to get rid of its homegrown Socialists.
20 January 2006, 19:31:22 GMT – Like – Reply

Godwinson
The SNP's policy which seeks independence for Scotland seems to me, as an Englishman, to be admirable. I want independence for England, but with a U.K. Labour government, which favours the labour voting Celtic fringe, this will not happen. This government needs Scots and Welsh Labour MPs votes to push through educational and other legislation in the majority country, England, which contains 80-85% of the electorate, and has a majority of Conservative voters.
This absurd situation, would be solved were England left to itself, with a Scotland which had independence, and Wales currently being given equal status with Scotland, England at last becomes independent, more-or-less by default.
Sadly, English MPs of all main parties are rather limp wristed quisling types, but commeth the hour commeth the man, and one might hope for an English leader to emerge, as he always has done in the past.
So I for one would hope for success for the socialist orientated SNP. I have little doubt that Scotland would find likeminded and sympathetic supporters among the MEPs of European countries, and a congenial home for the Scots within the EU, with possibly increased economic support from the EU. England would have an opportunity to shuffle off the socialist yoke which so erodes centuries of democracy and individual freedom. Who knows, even in this age of "The State", England might once again become prosperous enough for all, and recover its initiative and drive.
20 January 2006, 16:42:34 GMT